Thursday, June 12, 2008

The Indo-US nuclear deal dying

An assertion to this effect by an US official is welcome because the deal in it's current form is absolutely against India's interests. The deal, if needed, should be re-negotiated to keep our national interests at the fore.

Dr. Singh's assurances to the parliament that the present deal does not compromise India's interests are pure bunk. He repeatedly assured us that our concerns have been adressed by the Americans, but when the 123 agreement, the Hyde Act & various other documents came out, it turns out that not only were there a plethora of clauses severly restricting us, there were "fall-back" safeguards that the Americans put in, so there was no way out for us from this mess of a deal. The clauses did not stop at restricting us, they went ahead to seek intrusions in our nuclear programme. Our scientiests have expressed this as a grave concern.

It's surprising how gullible could our leaders be. The only defense they offer is that the various American acts around this deal do not apply to us. They forget that all those acts apply to the American president & their senate. How do you get around that? Dr. Singh also assures us that most of the specific clauses will not be applicable or enforced on us. But such assurances are not spelt out in the legal documents. Dr. Singh seems to have full faith in the private assurances of the American diplomats. To sign a deal, that runs counter to our national interest & believe verbal assurances made in private is a monumentally folly. Dr. Singh should resist his craving to be in the good books of the Americans & not compromise or interests. He is India's leader, not America's.